Czech news in brief for August 21: Friday's top afternoon headlines

Events commemorating the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia are steering the news cycle today. And as fate will have it, the highly-successful Czech movie 'Waves' - precisely set during that time - just topped one million viewers. Here are today's top headlines.

Independent media and a free press is one of the most fundamental pillars of democracy, President Petr Pavel said during during a commemorative event held in front of the Czech Radio headquarters on the anniversary of the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Also speaking at the event, representatives of the ruling coalition - including Tomio Okamura (SPD) and Alena Schillerová (ANO) - were booed by some members of the audience.

Public media in the spotlight. The event comes as the government struggles to push its controversial reform of public media funding and the abolition of license fees, which will likely be postponed beyond the original January 2027 date.

The Czech government officially approved President Pavel's upcoming trip to the United States next month to attend the UN General Assembly, followed by a working visit to Nebraska. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš also has a busy travel agenda in the coming months, with trips to Slovenia, Norway, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Ireland between now and November.

Less drama. Just weeks ago, the president and government had come head-to-head over who would attend and lead the Czech delegation to the July NATO summit in Turkey, leading to a political and constitutional stand-off between the two branches of executive power.

Czechia's largest weapons producer Czechoslovak Group (CSG) - property of the richest Czech, 34-year-old Michal Strnad - has signed a deal to supply ammunition to the police forces of Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden for seven years, the company announced today in a statement. CSG did not disclose the total price of the major deal.

Weapons hot. More specifically, the contract was won by CSG's subsidiary Federal, based in the U.S. state of Minnesota which, alongside Remington (also part of CSG) recently won a major CZK 1.6-billion contract to supply rifle ammunition to the FBI.

The film 'Waves' by director Jiří Mádl, set against the backdrop of the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia from the point of view of Czech Radio staff members, has been viewed by more than one million people in Czech cinemas as of today, becoming one of the most successful Czech movies in history. "It is symbolic that it happened on August 21, the day of the events that are crucial to the film's story," said Martin Palán, head of film distributor Bontonfilm.

Commercial success. With box-office sales reaching CZK 159 million, Waves is now the second-highest grossing Czech film of all time behind the 2019 comedy Women on the Run (Ženy v běhu).

In its latest update, the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (ČHMÚ) said thunderstorms are expected this afternoon and tonight in the western half of the country, with torrential rainfall and strong winds set to particularly affect central and north-eastern Bohemia.

Getting wet. River levels in smaller streams and Vltava tributaries are also expected to rise dramatically - but only for a relatively short time - throughout the night, with ČHMÚ issuing a second level flood alert in parts of the affected areas.